Science tells us that we must begin to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in the next five to ten years. But according to an analysis by offsets expert and Stanford law professor Michael Wara, it is possible that we could see no net reduction of CO2 emissions until the year 2040 because of offsets and unlimited banking of allowances in the new climate change bill.

The bill allows 2 billion tons of carbon offsets a year, roughly equivalent to 30% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Supporters of the bill point out that coal use will continue to increase until at least 2020 because electric utilities will continue to use dirty coal, the prime source of pollution.

With 2 billion tons of offsets per year, we are told that electric utilities will reduce carbon emissions at places other than their generating plants. So they really don’t have to actually decrease their emissions at all when it counts the most and coal fired CO2 emissions will increase. No wonder there are 26 active coal plant applications. Will increased CO2 emissions be our gift to the next generation? Apparently, the planet is not melting; it is just getting better for polluters.